


Intrepid Reporter

by Redrikki



Series: Whumptober 2019 [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Whumptober
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-11-10 16:20:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20854697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrikki/pseuds/Redrikki
Summary: Alya won't let a little thing like danger stop her from reporting the truth.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for Whumtober prompt "shaking hands."

Alya held her camera with steady hands. They were always steady. Sometimes her family would get freaked out by how close she got to the fighting filming for her Ladyblog, but she didn’t let that stop her. Did Lois Lane cower behind her desk? No! She stuck like glue to Superman and got her scoop, because that’s what real reporters do. Sometimes sharing the truth was more important than staying safe.

“Look out!” Ladybug shouted.

Alya threw herself down just as a car sailed over her head. She hugged the ground, her heart pounding in her chest before she managed to pull herself back up. Her livestream was still going and somewhere her mom was probably watching it. “I’m okay,” she said breathlessly, as much to assure herself as her audience. “All good.”

By the time she managed to get back to her feet, Ladybug and Chat Noir had already launched into a plan involving his staff and a Ladybug-themed banana peal which looked right out of a schoolyard bully’s playbook. It worked, of course. Alya caught every second of it as the terrifying Fighting Fire turned back into a confused firefighter. 

“Once again, Ladybug and Chat Noir have saved Paris from Hawk Moth and his akuma,” Alya narrated as the pair of heroes ran through their usual post-battle ritual of healing wave and fist bump.

Chat Noir made a hasty exit, but Alya managed to catch Ladybug before she could swing away into the sunset. “Anything for your fans?”

“Stay safe,” Ladybug said with a pointed look before leaping away.

“Always do,” Alya called after her. She ended the livestream and let her hands shake.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With all the akuma attacks over the last couple of months, Alya had sort of forgotten that regular human crime was a thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the Whumptober prompt "gunpoint."

With all the akuma attacks over the last couple of months, Alya had sort of forgotten that regular human crime was a thing. Apparently, the guy with the gun in her local grocery store decided she needed a reminder. Alya crouched behind a display and watched as he shoved his gun in the clerk’s face and demanded she empty the till. He wasn’t akumatized. No one was making him do it. He just wanted money. Wild.

Alya pulled out her phone and started the livestream out of sheer force of habit. After all, it was the best way to get Ladybug there to help them. She recorded every second as the terrified cashier filled a bag of money with shaking hands and gave it to the robber. He caught sight of Alya as he turned to go and suddenly the gun was in _her_ face. 

“You call the cops?” he shouted and it suddenly occurred to her she might get shot.

By this point, she’d more or less stopped being afraid of akuma. Sure people got killed or transformed or erased from existence, but Ladybug always brought them back the second she’d won. And she always won. Ladybug wasn’t here though, and Alya didn’t know if her healing powers worked on bullets. Her mouth went dry and her hands on the camera started to shake.

“Actually, I’m livestreaming to the Ladyblog,” she said, trying to sound like she wasn’t about to wet herself. “Any thoughts for the fans?”

He lunged for her with a wordless snarl and, for a second, Alya was sure she was dead. He smacked the phone from her hands and fled the store.

“Are you alright,” the clerk asked breathlessly. 

“Yeah. You?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.” Alya picked up her phone and called the cops like she should have done in the first place.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The thing that makes Alya an amazing reporter turned Lady Wifi into her worst self.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Whumptober prompt "don't move."

The party line was that no one remembered what happened while they were akumatized. That’s true in the short term. Alya’s time as Lady Wifi come back to her in drips and drabs and nightmares. She had a clear memory of capturing Chloe. Freezing her in place with a pause sign on her back. Peeling her mask off. She doesn’t remember what came next.

Alya had nightmares where it was the real Ladybug she’d managed to catch. The real Ladybug she froze. The real Ladybug she exposed to Hawkmoth and the entire internet. In her dreams, it was always Marinette beneath the mask. The subconscious was funny like that. How wild would that be? Marinette as Ladybug? At least she was a better choice than Chloe. 

Her dogged pursuit of the truth was the thing which made Alya a great reporter. It was also the thing that had turned her into the worst version of herself. But what was she supposed to do? Just stop looking when the answers were right there? Who would she be if she did that?


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alya and Nino in the aftermath of Heroes Day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for Whumptober prompt "adrenaline."

The adrenaline that had kept Alya going abandoned her the second she handed over her miraculous. She sagged against Nino, exhausted, as Ladybug swung away. 

“Are you alright?” Nino asked like she couldn’t feel him trembling too.

Alya carefully lowered herself to the ground. Her last superhero outing hadn’t hit her this hard. “That. Was. Crazy.” The five of them had gone up against Hawkmoth and a literal army of akumas, not to mention whatever that monster at the end was. It was a miracle they were alive.

“I know, right?” Nino dropped down beside her and leaned against her. He shook his head. “I can’t believe you’re Rena Rouge.”

And that was why he wasn’t the reporter she was. “I had you pegged as Carapace from minute one, _dude_. Ugh.” Alya flopped onto her back. “Do you know the worst part of being a superhero?”

“Ah, where we got akumatized and almost died?”

“Please," Alya scoffed, "like we’ve never done that before.”

“True,” Nino agreed with a shrug. “Umm, feeling like you’ve been hit by a truck after?”

Getting hit by a truck felt like a bit of a stretch. It was more like she’d just run a marathon after not eating for a week. She couldn’t believe they still had to go to class after this when all she wanted to do was eat a horse and sleep. Marinette’s picnic could not come soon enough.

Alya sighed. All that stuff was important to consider, but it wasn’t the worst. “I can’t share any of the stuff I did as Rena Rouge on the Ladyblog. I do not know how Clark Kent does it.” 

“Dude,” he shook his head, “you have got to sort out your priorities. Also, I’m pretty sure Superman manages it because he’s fictional.”

She waved him off. “It’s the print media. He can just write about the stuff he did as Superman after the fact. My fans expect me to give them up-to-the-minute reporting.”

Nino laughed and lay down next to here. “I know you’ll figure it out,” he murmured into her hair. 

Alya’s eyes drifted shut. A mirage might work. Or a static camera left on a rooftop somewhere. Whatever. She’d get it eventually, but she was too tired to do think about it right now. At some point, they really needed to get back to class or at least call their families to let them know they were okay. In the meantime, Alya was content to lay in her boyfriend’s arms.


End file.
